Others are also of the opinion that President Obama doesn’t have the constitutional authority for such a move, including… President Obama:

Here’s a transcript of that clip, which is from a 2011 Univision town hall:

“With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order — that’s just not the case. Because there are laws on the books, that Congress has passed — and I know that everybody here at Bell is studying hard so you know we’ve got three branches of government. Congress passes the laws. The Executive branch’s job is to enforce and implement the laws, and then the Judiciary has to interpret the laws. There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system, that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.”

Because the recent move by the Obama administration isn’t technically an executive order (the New York Times called it an “executive action”), somebody could claim that the move to end some deportations isn’t a contradiction of the above statement specifically mentioning EOs. However, I have to conclude that if Obama2011™ seen in the video is of the opinion that suspending deportations with an EO isn’t within the constitutional authority of the president, suspending them without an EO certainly isn’t either. But that was over a year ago. Things change quickly, especially in election years.

In related news, it’s being asked what effect the issuance of hundreds of thousands of job permits will have on the economy — specifically legal U.S. citizens looking for work. Well… let’s just say the AFL-CIO seems happy about something.